Happenstance
by Utsukushii Kohana
Summary: The only thing Claire desires is a normal life, which she can find at College. Until she spots a familiar face one day, because then her normal life begins to spiral out of control—due to her emotions. AU, written with the lovely Sakunade.


**Happenstance**

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**Claire Bennet desires a normal life more than anything else. So while living the normal life she's always dreamed of in College, she finds a very familiar face in the crowd at a Football Game. Then her normal life begins to spiral out of control—due to her emotions. 

**A/N:** I wrote this together with my very good friend, Sakunade. (If you love Kataang from Avatar, I suggest to read her wonderful stories!!) We both love Claire/Peter very much and decided to write a fic together about them. Hope you guys will enjoy this:)

**Disclaimer: **Don't own.

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**Chapter I  
**_Special Day with a Special Surprise_

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**Claire never knew that today would be a special day. 

It started out as a usual day, though. She stood up as her alarm clock beeped loudly through her room at 8:30, slamming the little cat-figured clock hard on the head where the button was to turn it off. Then she went to the bathroom to get ready for her lessons she had that particular day, running a black comb through her long, golden locks and she put on simple jeans and pink t-shirt. Slinging her messenger back over her shoulder, she headed out to her classroom, but as quietly as possible, since she didn't want to wake up her roommate.

As usual, Claire made sure that she got to class in time. She didn't have that many classes today because of the Football game that her University was holding during the afternoon. She remembers rehearsing for long hours, close into the evening with the other members of the Cheerleading Squad, just to make sure that tonight's cheerleading would top the rest. It wasn't everyday that the university's football team went against their rival school. There was a lot of school spirit today: banners and fliers with the words "Go Pirates!" scattered all over the school.

While sitting in class, she tried her best to pay attention to the lesson. She tapped her pen against her notebook quietly, making sure not to make that much ruckus, waiting for the hour to end.

When she finally heard the bell ring, she got up as quickly as possible to head for the final rehearsal with her Squad on the field. She didn't really need to change into her outfit, because they were going to dance their routine one time and changing whatever dance move needed to be corrected. Everything needed to be perfect and that was what the headcheerleader, Leslie, was striving for. Claire liked to compare her to a commander that was shouting at his troops at military service; Leslie got irritated rapidly, if she or one of the other cheerleaders moved a millimeter wrong, well she was in for the scolding of a lifetime.

Outside the baby-blue sky was cloudless and the warm sun was shining brightly, illuminating Claire's face as she ran up to the field hurriedly. She came to a stop where the other cheerleaders were and threw her carmine bag on the soft, recently mowed grass, and scooted next to the Squad, panting heavily.

Leslie narrowed her sienna eyes at her and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "So you did decide to show up, Claire," she spoke, venomously and frowning angrily at the blonde. "Next time I won't tolerate tardiness."

"Right, whatever you say Leslie." Claire replied, which to her dismay, Leslie didn't like at all.

"Don't talk to me like that. If you speak to me that way one more time then you'll be suspended from the Squad for the whole Football season."

Claire decided that it would be better not to talk back to Leslie. As much as she disliked her, she did like cheerleading. It was one of the many things that helped her get through the stress, not to mention make her believe that she had a somewhat normal life. It wasn't everyday that a cheerleader had the ability to regenerate over and over, despite the injury.

Noticing that Claire wasn't going to talk back, Leslie began drilling the cheerleaders. Claire sighed, raised her arms up in the air and smiled, reciting the cheers they've been practicing for the last couple of weeks.

-

"Urgh! Cheerleading is hard work!" she complained, as she collapsed on the soft mattress of her bed in her dorm room, with her face buried in her big, white pillow.

Her dormroom was this simple rectangular room, but she and her roommate, Mary-Jane, had decorated it pretty nicely. She had a burgundy, wooden bed in the one corner, closest to the door, placed horizontal against the white-cream wall, while her roomie slept on the other side of the wall in a round, purple bed sealed with a veil. Both had a desk for their own, and while Clair's was filled with paper and books, MJ (as Claire liked to call her) was piled up with scented candles and incense, because she liked to Feng Shui the place a bit.

Mary-Jane even liked to Feng Shui herself; she always wore pants she made herself and put on a yin-yang necklace around her neck that hung loosely just above her stomach. Every moring, she would wake up a half hour before she actually needed to get up to prepare herself for the day, because she had long work on her wavy brown hair that reached her waist, which she braided every day and then she would do some yoga exercises. Sometimes she even asked Claire to join her, which Claire always sighed at, but did anyways to please her.

The brunette glanced up from her magazine with a sceptically raised eyebrow. "How can it be so hard? You just dance a little out there," she replied monotonously, licking her thumb before turning over the page.

Disbelievingly, Claire frowned at her and groaned. "How can you say that?! It's more than just dancing," she answered, really offended by that statement. "Besides, Leslie is giving us a very hard time. She's more suited to become a general than a headcheerleader."

Mary-Jane just sighed and continued reading the book she needed to read for her English Lit class. "If you want, I could give her a piece of my mind for you. I never knew that cheerleading was such serious business, anyway."

"You don't have to, but in the back of my mind it would be _much_ appreciated," Claire remarked, leaning her back against the wall. "It's just, I'm tired of the way she's always treating everyone in the Squad. I'm not the only one who feels like she's more of a drilling sergeant than a head cheerleader."

"Then why don't you try out for the head cheerleading position, Claire?" Mary-Jane suggested, never taking her eyes off her book. "The only reason why nobody's been head cheerleader for a couple of years now is because they're all scared of Leslie, or so I've heard."

"Do you really think I can do it, Mary-Jane?" Claire asked, twiddling with her fingers. It was a bad habit she picked up a year or so ago.

"I think you can. You're the only one who's strong enough to really take her on, if you know what I mean." Mary-Jane knew about Claire's secret ability. It was no secret to her roommate, since she walked in on Claire attempting to cook, noticing that the burn rash she received from the hot water spilling by mistake, disappear only a few minutes later.

Claire sighed, "Yeah. I think I'll try out."

"'Atta girl!" Mary-Jane exclaimed proudly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with Ernest Hemmingway. I don't think he'd enjoy it if you interrupted us."

Claire laughed, and then proceeded to leave her friend to her reading. She needed to finish an essay that was due two days later, anyway. Reluctantly, she crawled out her soft bed and grabbed her books from her bag, and went to sit behind her desk to start on her essay for her psychology class. It was about what the subconscious desires and wishes of the human told them. Softly, she sighed and opened her psychology book to look up for information to write the essay.

Suddenly, she heard MJ's voice echoing through the room, asking her. "When is that important match anyways?"

Dropping her pencil on her sheet, she swirled her chair around to face her friend. "It starts at two o'clock, but I need to be there at one o'clock to change and stuff," she answered, with a pensive frown. "Why do you need to know? It's not like you're going or anything."

"I'm not. Watching a couple of guys placed in different teams running after each other and getting violent to get a hold on a stupid ball doesn't really interest me. I rather sit back in my beenie bag with a good edifying book is good entertainment for me," she spoke, disdainfully, closing her book after sliding in a bookmarker and taking of her oval glasses. "But I just wanted to know for no reason at all." She stood up from her beenie bag and headed to her nightstand to place her glasses on her flat radio clock and watched the digital, red numbers on the screen with a frown. "Euh, Claire—,"

"Yeah," the blonde replied, scribbling something down on her sheet.

"You said you were supposed to be there at one o'clock, right?"

"Yes."

"Bad news," MJ mumbled, scratching the back of her head sheepishly. "It's ten for."

"What?!" Claire spun around completely.

"If I were you I don't think I'd have the time to conversate—," At that moment, Mary-Jane watched Claire rush out of their dormroom, bumping into a few people in the hallways. ("Oops!" "I'm sorry! I really have to be somewhere right now!")

Claire raced down the hallways, out of the dorm house, and towards the football field where all the other cheerleaders were, already ready in their uniforms and practicing some moves. Leslie turned around and noticed Claire arrive late, a fact that she didn't like one bit.

"Claire! You're late—_again_!"

Claire panted, her hands on her knees as she looked up at Leslie. She really didn't want to get on her bad side again. "I'm sorry, Leslie. I was doing some work, and then I didn't notice the tim—,"

"No excuses, Bennet! Now go get ready! If I don't see you on the field in five more minutes...!"

Claire ran as quickly as she could towards the girl's locker rooms, changing into her cheerleading uniform. When she was finally ready, in less than five(!), a fact she was very proud of, she ran out to the Football field and began to stretch.

"Don't worry Claire," a friendly voice from behind her said. Claire glanced and noticed that it was Sofie, a good friend of hers and member of the cheerleading squad. They had psychology classes together, and she was her first friend when she first came to this university. "We're going to kick the other cheerleading squad's ass."

Claire smiled, laughing a bit before standing straight up. "You're right. I should just think about the performance, that way I can take my mind off everything else."

Claire sighed inwardly, concentrating on each dance move as much as she could, but her thoughts always wandered off to somewhere else—or rather _someone_ else. She always recalled the moment when she had her Homecoming, how she ran down the hall-ways more afraid than she had ever been in her life, because someone with special abilities such as herself killed her friend Jackie, and how she bumped into _him_.

He was this tall, dark and very handsome guy, not so much older than her, she guessed roughly ten years, and she was so scared then, crying and her long curls sticking to her neck because she wa sweating out of fear. But one look at this guy, who came to rescue _her_ out of all people, her who lived in an abandoned, little town in the middle of nowhere, her who thought she was a freak because she could heal every wound she got, and she melted away, legs feeling numb and drowning in those gorgeous eyes. She felt more safer by being in his mere presence and when he talked to her, with his soothingly soft voice, she felt even better.

Then this _monster_ showed up again, the one who murdered Jackie and this guy told her to go away, which she obeyed to. She wanted to stay at his side, protect him too, but at the spur of the moment she did run away and she felt like a coward for abandoning him and leaving him on his own with that _thing_.

But later on she saw him on the ground, healing himself, like she did and she didn't feel alone for the very first time; she found someone who was just like her.

She couldn't help herself when she asked his name, and after he answered that his name was Peter Petrelli, it haunted her ever since in her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about him and she wished that she could see him again one day, but unfortunately her wish never came true.

"Claire?" a voice awakened her from her thoughts, and she shook her head slightly, coming out of her daze. "Claire? Are you okay?" Sofie, apparently, questioned her worriedly and placed a gentle hand on Claire's shoulder. "You kind of tuned out there."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I just got lost in my thoughts..."

"Don't get too lost now, we need you for the big game," Sofie added, patting her on the back before returning to her position for the next movement.

Throughout the whole practice, Claire couldn't help but continue to think of him, of Peter Petrelli. It's been so long since she'd seen him, and she wondered what he was up to now. Somewhere in the back of Claire's mind she thought of Peter as her guardian angel, watching over her, taking care of her from a distance.

She rolled her eyes at her wishful thinking and her silliness, and simply continued with the dance moves, until Leslie told them. "Okay, that's it for practice, you guys. It's time to go to the lockers and wait till it's our cue to run up to the field."

Everyone nodded solemnly and followed Leslie to the lockers, but Claire stayed behind a bit, glancing around the field if he might be there watching over her. It was foolish to think so, but she could hope, there was still the tiniest possibility that he came to see her. Seeing no-one anywhere, she bit her lower lip and hung her head down sadly, while sagging her shoulders defeated. She inhaled slowly and caught up with the rest of the cheerleaders to go and wait inside the lockers.

-

The crowd was amazing, the bleechers were filled with people supporting their favourite team. Some made banners to show their loyalty to their respeced team, other preferred to scream their lungs out and the rest clapped as loudly as their hands allowed them. The soft blistering sun radiated brightly and reflected on the football field as if it was a specially reserved spotlight to give the game that was about to begin more focus.

The football team for both universities came out first, running across the field as they waved to their supporting fans. Next, came the cheerleaders. When Leslie was given the cue, she signaled the rest of the Squad to come out. The crowd began to cheer, and Claire felt herself become pumped up with excitement. She was going to do her best tonight. When the Squad lined up, getting ready into their formation, the school band started to play.

"Okay!" Leslie called out, her arms raised up in the air. "Let's go!"

"Okay!" Claire said in unison with the other cheerleaders. They started doing the moves they'd practiced for weeks now, perfected to every stand. The crowd cheered, and she could distinctly hear some of the football players remark about how well they were doing tonight. It certainly felt good, to know that all their hardwork paid off, especially since she had to deal with Leslie and her yelling.

When they finished, the crowd stood up and applauded them for their good work. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed someone very familiar. A tall man, wearing a dark trenchcoat and raven hair slicked back. His eyes were a familiar color too.

"_Wait...It couldn't be..._" Claire thought to herself.

Her heart skipped a beat, then began thumping so loudly she heard and felt her rapid heartbeat everywhere in her body. She shook her head softly, her hair falling out of her pony-tail and a couple of curly bangs framing her face. She must be dreaming, hallucinating; there was no way he could be there. As she squinted her eyes at him to look better, she still wasn't sure it was him. But she had to be sure, she desperately _wanted_ to know for certain if it was him, yes or no. So she did the most impulsive action she had ever done and began to run to the distant figure, not caring about what happened around her, even when the cheerleaders were screaming at her to come back, because she channeled all her attention solely on the incognito man.

The man saw her approaching and quickly turned around to walk the other way, away from her. She was quite offended by this sudden movement of his, but she was too determined to let him slip away from her slender fingers and ran as fast as her legs could bear to the guy. Once she caught up to him, she grabbed his shoulder firmly and spun him around more roughly than intended, and then gasped surprised when she saw who was standing before her.

Her lips parted, her eyes widened and she was speechless, she just couldn't believe who was standing before her.

"_Peter_?" she asked, on a whispering tone.

So much for her usual day...

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tbc

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**A/N: **Just a little reminder to push that button below. ;) 

_5/12/2007_

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